O

Oilydiff

Member
Hi all, Freelander 1 2004. The other day I was suddenly no longer able to change gear, no warning, no change of feel in clutch, no previous clutch slipping or obvious change in biting point. I started up one morning but could not engage any gear. Clutch pedal goes up and down as normal. Visually checking the master and slave cylinder I can't see anything obvious. With someone else in the cab depressing the clutch I can see the slave cylinder rod going in and out. Can slip in and out of gear easily enough with the engine turned off.

Reading other posts here the go-to solution seems to be to replace the sealed master/slave system but I am concerned that because the activator rod seems to be moving the problem may be elsewhere. Perhaps the rod is moving but not far enough or has come out of alignment?? Does anyone know how I definitively point the finger of blame at the hydraulic system?
 
As it is a visible slave I assume it is a 1.8 engine.
I have had the clutch release arm seize so that you can get gears but no drive.
The arm is prone to sticking and the bracket holding the slave can bend or fracture.
May be worth applying a wrench to the arm, getting the clutch in the car depressed and then seeing if the arm will move further with force. If so working the arm and lubrication may solve it.
If the movement from the slave seems adequate then it would appear that a component in the clutch has failed. Maybe broken release arm??
 
Yeh, I'd agree with release arm seizing up causing problems is the most likely cause.

A couple of drops of oil where the release arm goes through the bell housing and try and move it manually with a lever.

I'd get a new slave mount metal bracket that bolts to the side of gearbox and maybe new hydraulics.

When mine went, I had a little notice that something was up (difficulty engaging gear) - but very little. With mine, the metal bracket fractured and it also broke the slave casing. Replacing both sorted it easily/quickly.

Having said that, when I got my parts car the release arm was actually jammed and could not be moved. I haven't taken the gearbox off, but I presume something on the clutch was bust or installed wrong on that. Previous owner had been doing work on it and may have not done it right! They had though installed a brand new slave bracket and hydraulics - which came in very handy when mine bust :D
 
Thanks for the replies, I'll try and take a peek at the release arm and also see if the slave mounting bracket has given up. Guessing I need to get underneath and remove the undertray to be able to do anything sensible, problem is I left it parked in several inches of mud! - so will have to figure out a way of moving it into the garage.
 
With the battery and airbox removed I have a couple of hoses right in the way (from above). I guess I can pop them off easily enough, will give it a go as I really don't fancy crawling through mud!
 
I don't think you'll have any advantage by removing the under tray. Its all accessible from above.
 
Oilydiff said:
Guessing I need to get underneath and remove the undertray to be able to do anything sensible, problem is I left it parked in several inches of mud!
Click to expand...

No need to roll in the mud, it's all visible from the top, if you remove the air filter housing. ;)
 
So, I finally found the time to take a look and figure out whether the clutch release arm was fractured. I couldn't see any obvious breaks so I spayed liberally with penetrating oil. Asking someone else to depress the clutch I can see that the arm is moving and rotating the connection to the clutch, so not jammed or broken. What I did notice though is that, when operated the body of the slave cylinder is moving and when fully extended the piston arm is clearly not aligned with the slave body (see pic). It seems like the slave is not being held firmly in its connection to the bracket, perhaps the release arm seized temporarily and, while frozen, depressing the clutch forced the system to fail at its weakest point, the slave connection to the bracket.

What do you think, new hydraulics and mounting bracket?
 

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Solve the sticking arm first then, from photos, looks like bracket has bent.
You might be able to reuse the hydraulic system as it is if the bracket held the slave in the correct alignment and with the arm free.
 
Oilydiff said:
What I did notice though is that, when operated the body of the slave cylinder is moving and when fully extended the piston arm is clearly not aligned with the slave body (see pic). It seems like the slave is not being held firmly in its connection to the bracket, perhaps the release arm seized temporarily and, while frozen, depressing the clutch forced the system to fail at its weakest point, the slave connection to the bracket.
Click to expand...

Slave bracket cracking is pretty common, as Andy said in post 2. ;)
 
Thanks Nodge. Good plan Andy, I might just save £50 if I first try and replace the bracket only, after freeing/oiling the release arm mechanism.
 
So I found a spare hour this morning and replaced the slave cylinder mounting bracket. The old one didn't look obviously out of shape when I took it off. Once I replaced the cylinder in the bracket I still could not engage gear. The clutch release arm is moving (also gave it a few liberal sprays of penetrating fluid) and its connector is rotating, can't tell if it's moving enough as I can't compare it to beforehand when it was working. When I inspected the removed slave cylinder I didn't see any obvious damage or leakage though the piston rod was very floppy and easy to push in and out by hand, not sure if that's significant. I guess the next step is a replacement slave/master unit.
 
Normally, when you buy the slave/master unit, the piston rod is held retracted by plastic clips that break the first time you press the clutch (I don't think you have to break them yourself once installed?). I replaced mine with the one off the parts car which was virtually new, but the clips had been broken. When it was off the parts car the piston rod was amazingly floppy, may have even fallen out, and I was not expecting good results when I installed it, but it worked fine.

With the master end installed and clipped onto the clutch peddle, it was mighty hard to push the piston in enough to slip it into the cup of the release arm. If I remember correctly, it took a lot of persuasion and colourful language. It would almost slip in, but that last little bit was quite solid.
 
MGF hydraulic slave cylinder mounts never fail - but they have a different design to the Freelander. I've not done enough research (i.e. none) so I don't know whether the MG clutch release system can be used on the Freelander?
 
rob_bell said:
MGF hydraulic slave cylinder mounts never fail - but they have a different design to the Freelander. I've not done enough research (i.e. none) so I don't know whether the MG clutch release system can be used on the Freelander?
Click to expand...
I very much doubt it. The MGF hydraulics would be moulded to route to the engine at the back. The bracket may be similar?
 
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